I was quick to write off (later) Mayhem back in 2000 when Grand Declaration of War came out. So yesterday I finally decided to DL their post-Euronymous discography and gave all the albums from Wolf's Lair Abyss to Ordo Ad Chao a listen. Some of the stuff I heard was actually surprisingly good and quite prophetic stylistically when you see what a lot of the modern Black Metal (DsO etc) bands are doing today. I'm still not a fan of Maniac's annoying vocals and there's no doubt that these albums somehow do have the myth of the band against them. But when doing it right, like in some moments on Chimera, they do have a little bit of that "erie something" found on DMDS (maybe it's Hellhammers drumming or the riffs Snorre wrote for this album?). So looking past all the history and the bullshit, has Mayhem in the last 15 years been getting a little more shit than they deserved?

Perhaps. Although I would like to say that Maniac's vocals on WLA were hysteric and worked well there. A perfect way to make it clear that this album represented a new beginning, not just a continuation of that which came before.

Before into_the_pit the kraut queer fags up the thread with yet another sad chapter of senile fanboyism, I'd like to answer this

Quote:

has Mayhem in the last 15 years been getting a little more shit than they deserved?

no it hasnt. WLA was semi-decent for what it was worth (it was brutal enough if anything), everything that followed was a joke so the bashing is well deserved. Maniac's annoying singing wasn't even the main issue seen as things didnt change much when Attila was called back in the ranks, it's the lack of interesting riffs that makes it unbearable for me.

Mayhem was always more than just the music and that was Euronymous. If Hellhammer had left, it could still have been "the true" Mayhem, Necrobutcher wasn't around and it was still "the true" Mayhem. It's not the same band that recorded DMDS so the music wasn't ever going to be really Mayhem. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is still one of the, if not THE, best Black Metal record of all time. Mayhem Mach II has always been a seperate entity as far as I'm concerned and a pretty shite one at that.

I dig Ordo quite a bit though it is a bit difficult to digest. Chimera is good to besides the horrible plastic drum sound._________________English adviced by Richard Johnson
Intestine Baalism - Anatomy of the Beast booklet

Mayhem was always more than just the music and that was Euronymous. If Hellhammer had left, it could still have been "the true" Mayhem, Necrobutcher wasn't around and it was still "the true" Mayhem. It's not the same band that recorded DMDS so the music wasn't ever going to be really Mayhem. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is still one of the, if not THE, best Black Metal record of all time. Mayhem Mach II has always been a seperate entity as far as I'm concerned and a pretty shite one at that.

Mayhem was always more than just the music and that was Euronymous. If Hellhammer had left, it could still have been "the true" Mayhem, Necrobutcher wasn't around and it was still "the true" Mayhem. It's not the same band that recorded DMDS so the music wasn't ever going to be really Mayhem. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is still one of the, if not THE, best Black Metal record of all time. Mayhem Mach II has always been a seperate entity as far as I'm concerned and a pretty shite one at that.